Dereck Stonefish, a first-year graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. In awarding the fellowship, the foundation noted Stonefish’s selection “was based on your outstanding abilities and accomplishments, as well as your potential to contribute to strengthening the vitality of the U.S. science and engineering enterprise.”
The fellowship, which is awarded for a three-year period from 2011 to 2014, carries a total award of $151,500 for research-related expenses. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in the U.S. and abroad.
Stonefish, who is pursuing a doctorate in zoology, conducts research on the migratory ecology of red-winged blackbirds and yellow-headed blackbirds that are summer residents in North Dakota. He uses geo-locators to track the birds’ movements from North Dakota to their wintering grounds and back to the state. “His project not only will provide major insights into the migratory ecology of these species, but the information also will be used to assess how impacts of global climate change may affect migration of these birds,” said Erin Gillam, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Stonefish’s adviser. Stonefish conducts his field research in North Dakota’s prairie pothole region.
Stonefish previously received a Graduate Student Research Assistantship Native American pilot project award in 2010 from the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR). He is a graduate of Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, N.D. Stonefish is one of only four tribal college graduates in the U.S. to receive an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship since 2006. The National Science Foundation’s Tribal Colleges and Universities Program assists eligible institutions prepare students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Stonefish previously participated in the Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education (NATURE) program sponsored by ND EPSCoR.
Stonefish is the fourth graduate student at NDSU to receive a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
